This invention relates to polysaccharides and to a process for their production from an extract or a cultered broth of a mycelium comprising a fungus species of the class Basidiomycetes. Such polysaccharides have been found to be effective in the treatment of cancerous tumors in mice.
While the extraction of unspecified substances having anti-cancerous activity from certain species of Basidiomycetes is known (Japanese Patent Publication Nos. 18196/1962, 16048/1968, and 25563/1968, for example, are generally directed to such a concept) these processes are not commercially feasible since they necessary use basidiocarps as the starting materials and the use of such materials is impractical for mass-production. In addition, the physicochemical properties of the products resulting from these processes were not known.